My 8 year old son started Concerta last weekend and his teacher sent me lots of message saying how well he was doing in class. The dr told me to skip weekends and holidays. So I didn't give it to him on sat,sun, mon,tues (holidays) and started again today, weds. The teacher wrote me a message saying he was back to his "old self". Do you think it was a fluke that his behavior was so great last week or do you think it's because he wasn't on the medication for 4 days. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

While it goes contrary to established wisdom on the subject, I find that I need several days of stimulant treatment to reach full efficacy. I tend to avoid taking days off when possible, as I do experience reduced effect on subsequent days.

In my experience (both my son and I are on Concerta), even if we skip a day, the medication works as well as ever when we take it again. But, keep in mind that everyone's biology is different, so its possible your son will react differently to the meds (in addition to whatever dosage he's on)...

Most importantly, I have learned to sometimes take what the teacher says with a grain of salt. They are not psychiatrists, and sometimes they lose their patience and jump to judgments that are not medically relevant. If it were me, I'd give it at least a week or two before making any conclusions.

Last edited by amudgarden; 02-25-2011 at 01:23 PM.

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